Hi redpepper, what I meant is that when you commit to somebody the whole idea is that you will stick with them through thick and thin, no matter how your circumstances change. It is how we develop as human beings, to stick with someone when bad times come, rather than cut and run. We don't have control over life but we do have control over ourselves.
That's just my take on it, and my wife's as well.
Maybe less fluid and changeable than some poly people might see things. Not judging anybody else, that's just us.

Okay, I'm trying really hard to be calm and play nice here. Handfasting is a marriage. Just because the original version was for a year and a day, and some people still use it that way, does not mean that everyone does, just like a Christian marriage. Some people see marriage as just as disposable as you see handfasting--my husband's father has been married five times!

As for through thick and thin--my handfasting is JUST as valid as any Christian ceremony. Are you saying that my commitment is sponsored by a piece of paper? That's bogus. I have been through plenty my TWENTY YEAR handfasting. Our son was born sick and we spent his first six months in and out of the hospital. We spent his first two years dealing with ostomies, heart trouble, four surgeries, financial distress. We've been through job loss, near bankruptcy, dealing with past my past abuse, a couple of cancer scares, infertility, deaths in the family, several car accidents, disability, and physical injury and physical illness--to the point where we had to change our entire lives to accomodate me. I am COMMITTED.